One & Two Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

One & Two Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 10, 2015

As my wife would probably no doubt be more than happy to share with anyone brave enough to ask her about it, I have a tendency of wanting to “document” when I figure out upcoming twists in films or television shows we’re watching by simply stating out loud what’s going to happen. I regularly annoy my long suffering spouse by, for example, revealing who this week’s culprit in Elementary (one of my wife’s few regular viewing habits) will be, typically by the first or second commercial. She probably still hasn’t forgiven me for whispering to her very early in The Sixth Sense that there was a reason little Haley Joel Osment looked directly at Bruce Willis when he mentioned his ability to see deceased folks. And so on and on it goes, and frankly there has been no easier filmmaker for me to “guess” about than a certain M. Night Shyamalan, a writer-director whose post-Sixth Sense output has been increasingly predictable, at least for certain armchair prognosticators like yours truly. That predictability was in some ways no more, well, predictable than in 2004’s The Village, a film that had me fairly bursting out of my skin with (correct) prophesies about what ultimately unfolded. The Village’s central thesis of an isolated “historical” community may spring to the minds of many viewers as they watch the at least somewhat similar One and Two, a fitfully engaging quasi-horror entry that may not “take a village” as it were, insofar as its insular cast is one family. The odd thing about One and Two, though, is that it forsakes any Shyamalan-esque "twists" in favor of a fairly straightforward and even literal presentation of what turns out to be a supernatural element at play. That pedestrian approach may be off putting for some who want at least a degree of surprise (not to mention the opportunity to prove what a smartypants they are by predicting a potential "twist"), but the film has a marginally engaging tone that may help it appeal to some who don't mind a somewhat derivative story that delivers a few chills if not outright scares.

Say what you will about the often preposterous lengths Shyamalan has gone to in an effort to “explain” elements of his stories, the fact remains that at least the writer-director tries to offer some kind of rationale for his plot mechanics. One & Two is almost deliberately unwilling to offer any real explanations, choosing instead to luxuriate in mood as the film details the exploits of an isolated family that exists in a kind of sylvan paradise which is sequestered behind a massive wall which suggests not just the imposing forest of The Village, but such disparate entries as The Maze Runner and Attack on Titan . As with quite a bit else in One & Two, the provenance and/or history of the wall is never explained, and in fact its very existence seems kind of silly when the film’s real conceit comes into play.

That plot point is revealed rather early in the proceedings, after the introduction of young siblings Zac (Timothée Chalamet, Homeland: The Complete Second Season) and Eva (Kiernan Shipka, Mad Men: The Complete Collection). The two are dutiful kids attending to chores assigned by their parents Daniel (Grant Bowler) and Elizabeth (Elizabeth Reaser). If Dad Daniel is a bit of a hardass, Elizabeth seems to be more in tune with the odd, isolated lives her children are living, making allowances for certain behavioral tics in the kids as a result. But after the screenplay (co-written by the film’s director Andrew Droz Palermo) quickly elides the living conditions of the family, the evident reason for the family’s isolation is revealed when Eva wrinkles up her brow one night and more or less teleports right through her bedroom wall to the field outside. (And here is why that immense wall surrounding the family farm seems so nonsensical.)

And so it’s simply a “given” that Zac and Eva are, well, kind of special, though as with that aforementioned wall, there’s precious little information forthcoming in the film’s screenplay that offers any context or exposition. Instead the film traffics in the increasingly tense relationship between the kids and Daniel, as Daniel is intent on keeping the kids “down on the farm,” so to speak, while the kids, petulant teens that they are, want to get out and explore the world.

When tragedy strikes the family, tragedy that Daniel more or less blames on the kids, all hell breaks loose, which leads to a frankly odd and schizophrenic feeling schism that finds Eva trying to make her way out in the big, wide world while Zac has to deal with his seemingly increasingly unhinged Dad back in the supposedly safe environs of the farm. The film ping pongs back and forth between the two, but never organically integrates anything, leaving the film dangling like a loosely woven together series of vignettes. There’s no reason given for anything—not the kids’ condition, not the family tragedy, not Daniel’s seemingly obsessive qualities, nothing. Mood is fine, and it admittedly takes One & Two rather remarkably far, all things considered, but when mood is divorced from baseline plot mechanics, the result is a kind of hazy mass that never achieves much emotional resonance.

One & Two Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

One & Two is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of IFC Midnight and Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Director Andrew Droz Palermo has given interviews where he admits he would have preferred to shoot One & Two on good old fashioned film, but a modest budget allowed for only use of the Arri Alexa. The result is perhaps a bit underwhelming, especially since so much of the film takes place in very dimly lit environments, where the digital capture simply can't overcome incipient murk and haziness, leading to some scenes that are very hard to make out due to insufficient shadow detail (one especially important moment takes place at night where the kids are supposedly seen frolicking outside, although it's next to impossible to see who's seeing them). In decent lighting or out in the open during daytime, detail perks up measurably, and the palette looks fresh and healthy. In these moments, fine detail is also largely commendable, though the overall look of this film is perhaps surprisingly on the soft side given the technology utilized.

One & Two Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One & Two features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which capably supports a rather nuanced and subtle sound design. The film has relatively long sequences without much dialogue, and the smart placement of ambient environmental noises creates a vivid and lifelike sense of immersion. There is a reliance on quasi-LFE when the kids teleport, along with some rapid panning effects when the kids end up meters away from where they began. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly, and Nathan Halpern's modest but inviting score also sounds crisp and well defined.

One & Two Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 2:09)

One & Two Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One & Two feels almost like a first draft screenplay that somehow made it to the screen. The writing could have used some serious fleshing out, for my hunch is a lot of viewers will feel detached from the proceedings because so little is explained and no real context is ever developed. The film is very long on mood and is visually quite enticing. Technical merits are middling (video) to very good (audio) for those considering a purchase.